New Unit

On Monday, we started a new unit on weather and climate. We will focus more on weather and only take a quiz to conserve our remaining time for part of the space unit. One thing I learned today that I did not know before is the difference between climate and weather. Weather is a description of the exact temperature and cloud cover at the moment but climate is calculated through patterns over a long span of time. We then went on to the different types of clouds and how hail forms. The typical clouds you would think of as being fluffy and white are classified as cumulus clouds. After doing a few slides of notes we worked on doing our vocab for unit 9. The one thing I need to improve on when doing vocab is reviewing it after I write them.

On Tuesday, we started class by doing four slides of notes. The first new thing I learned while doing notes was latent heat. Latent heat involves phase changes like condensation and evaporation. These phase changes involve a change in energy. Phase changes move from a low energy state to a high energy state. The energy released into the environment from phase changes are latent heat. Saturation was also a topic we reviewed from last year. The saturation we talked about involved condensation and evaporation. Saturation is when both condensation and evaporation occur at the same rates. Saturation can affect the moisture in the air  and is affected by temperature. After taking notes, we worked on creating a cloud viewer for making identifying clouds easier. This was a cool idea to help us learn the cloud types if we ever go cloud watching.

On Wednesday, we reviewed notes on dew point. The dew point is a saturation point. I never really thought about the dew found on my grass most mornings until this unit. After reviewing notes we worked on a weather stations lab mostly about pressure. While doing this lab I learned that better weather occurs at high pressure. A low pressure usually results in clouds or rain. The next time it rains I will know that it was a result of low pressure in our atmosphere.

On Thursday, we began class by taking more notes. We mainly focused on severe weather. One new thing I learned while taking notes is how lightning is formed. It is formed by wind direction from low to high causing winds to rotate. Ice particles that move up and down create static electricity forming lightning. I never knew that lightning was formed by winds. We also went over the ways to measure weather conditions. I knew of a barometer but I did not know of the rest. After that, we worked on the weather stations lab. This lab helped me understand changing pressure systems and how they impact life on Earth. One way air pressure affects humans is through the respiratory systems. Without atmospheric pressure, humans would not be able to breathe.

On Friday, we finished up the week by doing a review worksheet. This was a review for our upcoming quiz and the questions were mainly directly from the notes. This review took me the majority of class but I still had some I did not finish. One thing I can improve on for this week is studying for my quiz next week in advance. This new unit was okay and I learned a lot more about weather.